I'm pretty much on the same level as others who have seen both of Blomkamp's movies. I liked Elysium, but it didn't have that special something that made me love District 9. Still, I very much like its gritty sci-fi, and it's something I wouldn't mind seeing more of in contrast to most of the genre's 'too clean' looks.

It's funny that I didn't even bother seeing D9 until it was available as a rental. Hell, I wasn't even fully aware of what it was all about until I actually watched it, so definitely no overrating by me. ;)

You didn't enjoy the allusions to apartheid or modern day issues with refugees?

I think I enjoyed the film because of my interest in South African history, the way it dealt with the arrival of aliens/refugees (a subject of some debate in my country) and that, for once, aliens didn't head straight over to the USA...

Edit: i also liked that hoomans were the bad guys for once... :)

To my surprise i actually like it a lot. Don't especially like matt damon, hate movies with a Obvious message (district 9) so it thought i would probably not like it, but i enjoyed the world immensly. Most of it made sense, characters' action were logical and understandable most of the time. Plot was mediocre but like I said the world and everything in it was well thought out of and interesting. Loved that the real futuristic stuff was just there and not in your face so it was all believable.

The only thing i didn't like was how Jodie Foster acted and talked but you cannot really blame here for that (I think) because it was obviously something she had to do this certain way (so i would probably blame the director here). Also there seemed to be a huge editing mistake but i cannot go much into it right now because of spoilers but something happened that could not have happened unless it happend 5 scenes later, so i guess they fitted the scene into the wrong place...

Good to see I'm not alone. For me the biggest gripe (among many) was that the plot basically revolves around the notion that if you spill alien diesel on your face, you turn into a dinosaur.

Allusions? You meant blunt, hammer to the face "THIS IS APARTHEID" message? Listen, I didn't know much about the history of that conflict, but a far better Apartheid movie came out the same year: Invinctus. It didn't dodge around the subject using alien surrogates. I'm fine with metaphor (that's basically all superheroes are, AKA X-men covering the same subject) but it was not even remotely obfuscated.
For once? Have you not seen any of the several thousand movies that condemn corporate greed in the most hammer to the face way possible? Did Avatar intrigue you because of its enthralling dynamics between the species? It's not a new concept, and like most movies that do this, it made the humans one dimensional pricks with no real motivation.

I think that was the only part of the movie I found remotely tense. Of course, they ruined it with crap like throwing in a romance out of nowhere and the complete non-sequitur of events from the infection onwards. The movie was just dumb, but people saw a shaky cam editing style and thought it was "artistic". As much as I am starved for something new myself, I do not think D9 was actually sufficiently different in nearly any way.

I saw it the other day too and I really loved the film, it was perfect.
I especially liked the shots of the "reboot code" where they showed what looked like Assembly Language.

As for "best Sci-Fi", I would have to say 2001: A Space Odyssey is up there.

Thanks for the heads up. Every time i see/hear the name Matt Damon I think of Team America. l:D. But he has proven to be an able and good actor. If you can`t hear them, it`s not because of some bad acting, it`s most likely the sound department that screwed up. The dialog is more important than the music.

PR was ok, but it was like a swiss cheese. Don`t remember exactly what it was right now...

Yeah, District 9 was horrible. All the praise for it, and it was just a horrible film. And I hate the Shaky Camera BS.

Damn, I was looking forward to Elysium, and now I find out that the District 9 guy made this film. I guess I will wait for Redbox on this one as well.

Sorry, just saw this.

Well allusions can be obvious or not (cf allusion), they just draw your attention to something without specifically mentioning it. I don't believe District 9 ever specifically mentioned apartheid but it may well have. I agree that it was an obvious metaphor, but I thought it was a good one. Again, in Australia there is a refugee debate going on which also interested me.

I agree that Invictus was a great movie, but it wasn't really an apartheid movie. It was set in the mid 90s, apartheid basically happened from the late 40s to around 1990. Invictus was more about the country dealing with the post-apartheid issues.

I enjoyed Avatar (although I had particularly low expectations of it and didnt see it until several years after it was released). That was definitely another movie where the majority of humans mistreated aliens. I think those kind of movies are, generally speaking, the exception rather than the norm. I could be wrong though.

Just saw the movie. Did anyone else feel like it was missing Act 3? The climactic fight (I won't spoil the details) felt more like a "middle-of-the-movie" fight leading up to a final showdown later down the line, and then they just cut straight to the denouement. It felt odd and unsatisfying.

That point aside, my feelings about the film were more or less the same as my feelings about district 9: reasonably entertaining action, padded with entirely gratuitous and unsubtle social commentary that fails to enrich the movie but doesn't really detract from it either. So, fun while it lasted, but I probably won't remember it a year from now.

Just seen it myself, and my sentiments are pretty much those of Azilut, even if I do believe that the class war issue had massively underdeveloped potential. They had a great premise there to develop upon, and when the storyline reached its peak, they had that ridiculous Act 3 that didn't really contain anything of substance at all.

** SPOILERS **

If I'm honest, I saw more parallels between the relationship between the National Socialists of the 1930s and German Jews of that era than I did between the current rich/poor situation. Rhodes' attitude to the Dwellers (particularly her disgusted look in Frey's direction) was as if they were some kind of Untermensch, Earth was some kind of concentration camp and the people were essentially forced labour, i.e. forced by economic conditions, obey or die.

What I did find rather unsatisfying, aside from the silly third act (even if Krüger was highly entertaining), was the conclusion to Rhodes' storyline, which was abrupt and left no room for Rhodes' development as a character. She walked around scowling and generally playing the stereotypical Nazi/neo-con Republican hybrid, but when it came to reaping what she sowed, the conclusion was abrupt and rather hollow.

But otherwise a great action film.